The Thrill of the Jump and the Joy of Radio

So whether you're a regular listener or first-time guest , we are excited to have you here and appreciate the support and thanks again for tuning in today's episode . So let's get into the show . As always , I'm your host , eric N1JUR Love that call sign and I'm with my co-hosts .

It was the people that were trying to get a hold of him because they're like come over to the general side please . Oh , he was , he was , he was going . I got it . There's many more generals out there than there are extras , apparently .

Well , so , as always , before we get into our topics , we've got a few things we want to catch up on Our store front . On livefreeandhamcom forward slash shop has got a bunch of new merchandise . We're going to replace the shirt that . When is Paul going to jump ? Someday ? Well , someday is already come and gone .

By the time you hear this episode , he has officially launched himself out of a plane , happily screaming . I'm flying all the way down and enjoying every minute of it , and so we're going to talk a little bit about that . But you know we are going to be replacing that shirt and a bunch more stuff is coming .

I guarantee you want to make sure you stay tuned to our storefront and make sure you go over there and check out some of the new stuff that we're coming out with . I think it'd be pleasantly surprised . And , as always , we want to thank everybody who has purchased from our storefront . We know a bunch of folks in the past that we've shared .

They shared bought hats , bought t-shirts , and so we all thank you for your support and appreciate . You guys help supporting Live Free and Ham . It helps keep suspicion alive . So , as always , we love feedback . We love good , we love bad , we love indifferent . We love bad , we love indifferent . We love the ugly .

And you can always send us a review , both on our Apple podcast or the way . Easier way to do it and platform agnostic is using our SMS link and all of our show notes . Just by clicking that , you can send us a text message and for with that , you know , we can go right into our favorite segment back .

Ladies and gentlemen , can I please have your attention ? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story . Everybody , we got some news . Slow down , boog , let me handle this . We've got some news , I've got bad news and bad news I have reviewed ship's personnel captain .

Well , chris , we thought you were a very special listener , listening to us all the way from Portland Oregon , so we slipped it in for you to get a preview of it . So thanks for watching it and we're glad you liked it .

We always felt that when you ask other hams about certain clubs and joining them or participating in certain modes or frequencies or whatever be the flavor , there's always going to be someone with a bad taste about something , a sad ham or someone that doesn't want to share the good of why they got into the hobby , and you know how amazing it is .

So we're turning that on its ear and we're looking at it as , like our do good episode . So we want to hear from people . We want to hear from you , our listeners . We want to hear the good stuff that's going on . Did you do something during Support your Parks weekend ? Or maybe you did a POTA meetup ?

Or maybe you did something with your club on a Zoom meeting or whatever . You thought that was just really cool to do ? Well , we want you to share that with us and share that with the world to know that there's stuff out there that is happening in the hobby and it's good stuff .

It's not all the doom and gloom that we hear and we listen on QRZ and everywhere else and any other podcast . So with that I have to pause because my heart hurts . Nobody sent anything in .

So if you're getting tired of hearing about the Grand State Amateur Radio Club , well , tough luck , because we love talking about them and so we're going to share with you an event that kind of already come and gone but we loved doing it . We want to thank some of our great club members , the organizing it and getting it off the ground .

So sports park weekend was in the late October . All right , guys . Yeah , right , around the . You know well , for us this recording goes out . Uh , you know we'll be way late . But uh , you know , john , we had a club member , john kb1 icl .

He got he stepped up , said he wanted to help out and , you know , start doing stuff , uh , with um , you know ham radio and our poda meetups , and so he took the fall um , you know , opportunity for the meetup and schedule it during support your parks weekend . But damn man , he stepped it up . He said we're gonna camp out all weekend .

You know , opportunity for the meetup and schedule it during Support your Parks weekend . But , damn man , he stepped it up . He said we're going to camp out all weekend . And everybody who are the diehard POTA guys , paul being one of them , I'm the you know , the guy who bailed out .

I should have stayed over and slept over the weekend , but you know , sorry me .

We had about 14 hams there , a bunch of public asking you know , hey , what's , what's this radio all about ? And a bunch of guys and gals all listening uh and and talking about ham radio . And I made a ton of contacts . I mean , I was on 20 . I know I saw paul on ham alert excuse me , ham alert for , uh , he's got photos .

If you're in the live stream , uh , if you're in the video youtube channel , you can see some of the photos there . Um , yeah , we , we had a blast . I mean , paul got a chance to camp Tim and a few others . He can share some of his experience here a little bit . You know what he thought , but I don't know . I thought it was a blast .

What was your take on that , paul ?

The winter , next quarter , next quarter now maybe , uh hey , they're , uh , team yesu .

I think I saw at least 136 spots at one time just on the 20 meter band , like in the middle of Saturday . It was insane how many like stations were out there and available .

I didn't get going until saturday morning , um , but , uh , yeah , I stayed on 10 meters 90 of the time because it was just wide open . I was getting all kinds of dx . Uh , you know , it was just fantastic that fantastic .

He was just on 10 meters the whole entire time hunting them and just making contacts , not like looking for park numbers and stuff like that . And so when I sat down and said here , this is how you know you can do it , he was just like that's really all I have to do . I'm like , yeah , dude , they just come to you .

And he was just like , oh well , then that's easy , that's no problem whatsoever .

And so like , literally , I think , after I stepped away for a little while and I had literally banged out 15 to 20 contacts on 10 meters in 15 minutes , I mean it was Europe all the way , I mean Germany , finland , you know , Spain , the whole nine yards , and it was just like five nines and I'm on 20 Watts , like I was like , put it this way , it inspired

me to take my QRP rig with me up to Maine , which I'll talk about a little later , the next day , which was a fiasco , but that was another issue altogether , but I was psyched to go play QRP so that was awesome to be inspired by that .

So it was very , very nice during the day . It was uh what , like 73 74 during the day , but then it was like 36 at night . I forgot my cot . I forgot , uh , the , the extra big sleeping bag . I forgot , forgot all of the creature comfort things , and so I was freezing my ass off in my military sleeping bag system and now it's a one-person sleeping bag .

One person fits tight in a sleeping bag . But I was so cold that I grabbed Watson and I pulled him into the sleeping bag with me .

So I hope that inspires you guys again to get out and send us , you know , either via SMS link and email to live free and ham at gmailcom , or , you know , if you are so inspired we still have the challenge out there you can send Paul and one OG a wind link message with yours , you know , do good segment and we will gladly invite you on the show in our

next live stream if you want to come on . If not , we'll just read it , no big deal . Let us know in your message there . But either way , we want to showcase the good that's happening in ham radio and not give any of those lids or bad actors any ground whatsoever to stand on , alright , okay .

So as we segment into , any ground whatsoever to stand on , all right , okay . So as we segment into . And now for something a little extra , with Todd W1STJ . Well , you've heard it here . This is where we help Todd , as always , study for his extra class and license .

In each episode we pick three questions from the extra class question pool to test his knowledge , hoping he gets his upgrade , all right , well , if you'd like to follow along , you can head over to hamstudyorg , which is a great resource and helps you prepare to test , and is recommended by three other VE examiners .

Now I got full faith in you , todd . You're going to go 100% tonight .

The current going out and coming back is in balance and sustained safely within the shield and can neither radiate out nor be affected by the noise coming in . However , common mode current flows on the outside of the shield .

Since the shield is a single conductor , something else needs to be there to complete the circuit , usually through your safety earth connection or somewhere else . That is undesirable . This unintended circuit occupies a big area which makes a nice loop antenna to radiate and absorb noise . So the uh .

The other three options are good practice to prevent ground loops and other noise problems and prevent , not cause , radiated interference nice job .

All right , well , so with that you know if you're on your journey to study , if your're a technician in general or extra class license , in that case hamstudyorg is an excellent resource for getting your ticket . And if you your upgrade , send us a quick email , live free in ham at gmailcom , or use our sms link .

Just let us know you got it and we'll be gladly to share your call sign , share in your excitement and celebrate with you , because it is an awesome recognition to be able to get your upgrade um to the next class license and then , once you get extra , you know you're done . At that point you've worked the mastery of license to learn .

Now the sky's the limit in terms of trying to actually figure it all out .

How's your Hamry week been ?

Support your Parks Weekend obviously was fantastic and for those that don't know , and I suppose we'll discuss it further later I finally was able to leap out of the plane and view the big sky from the big sky . Man , that was amazing .

I didn't hit any lights , there's like four of them and oh , you're going to have to pay attention to Paul's channel for sure , when he gets that video released .

Well yeah , anyways , something was mentioned on the live stream and it was like , oh yeah , I wanted to bring it up and now , yeah , now it's gone , it's gone .

Todd , how was your Emory Week going , oh ?

And we had weather last week and our game got canceled so we had to make it up . So I had an 11 o'clock game got canceled so we had to make it up . So I had an 11 o'clock game and a 3 30 , which wasn't gonna fit into me doing support your parks , so I did miss it . Um , kids played well , though it was glad it was our last two games .

So , uh , I couldn't really skip it because that would have been bad , as the head coach did not show up for their last two games . So , uh , I haven't done much ham radio and , like I said earlier , I I miss paul jumping , even though I was going there , and he just jumped too fast .

And there's two other groups that I got to see jump , but he could have just waited a second and do the second group . It must have been excited . But I will tell you this .

I've never seen this man smile so much , like he just was glowing when he came , like he was like you know , like the kid getting the red rider bb gun , like he was pumped way more than that .

But yeah , yeah , yeah , I mean it was , it was good to see and uh , well deserved and uh , it's gonna be fun watching him uh go through his , his journey of jumping out of airplanes and I will be , as he remembers , go ahead , ball All right .

There's four different people that left mean comments on my near fest video because they didn't like the music . So when the skydiving video comes out , let me tell you I am gonna put the most obnoxious heavy metal music to that video and I hope everybody fucking enjoys it just make sure your audio is lower than the volume of the music .

So I said , yeah , sure she had to pick up her other son you know , just kind of carpooling but she didn't . She texted me and I didn't respond to her until after the live stream was off . And then I saw her at the game and I said , hey , uh , you know I'm sorry it took me so long , but I was doing a podcast .

She goes , oh , your wife told me she goes , I'm , and she gives me and I forget what her call sign was like and one below and I'm like you're a ham , holy crap , she goes . Well , I am , but I'm not practicing . I haven't , um , I haven't done it since high school and I'm like , oh , I'm like , guess what ?

I said check out our podcast , cause I'm going to need you to be on it when we do the YL . She says , I'll do it . I said , well , you're going to probably get harassed about why you're not doing it and why you should get back to doing it .

So it was pretty cool to find another person who is you'd never know is licensed and not practicing , but started to get a little interest in it , so maybe we'll snag her into the hobby again .

I mean , you know , I'm probably the only guy in the world that can't wait for like all communications to freaking shit the bed because I'm going to be like now you need me .

She's like you mean in the truck , I'm like , no , I brought a separate radio . She's like . She's like , and then she like there was a little couple like at , at , at Agmeditas , that we were activating , like I was like I got to wait for a bench and she'd like went over to the little couple that was sitting there .

I mean , these are like 70 year old people . She's like are you almost done , cause my husband needs this bench .

And Bob Cushman , the guy that , uh , he used to his father created Cushcraft and he's 90 years old . And , uh , he's a years old and he's a ham and he was at the field and he always asks me how things are going , how's the podcast going and how's ham radio going .

So he's not active but he still has got his license and he keeps asking how things are going . And I tell him I said , listen , I go , your antennas are high . He didn't even know MFJ was going out of business . I don't know what they're doing with Cushcraft antennas , like if they're going to sell it off or what . Yeah , they probably will .

But and he , he used to . He goes , yeah , mfj , he goes , that's just mighty fine junk . That's what he calls it , that's what everybody does , that's monk gear . But but he's a great guy . He's .

He's flies the model airplanes , got a car collection and he's just generally just a good man and it's fun talking to him and he he asked me every time I see him , you know how's it going , and it's nice to talk to someone like that who is , I think , glad that the hobby is still going to . People like us are are still into it , so it's good .

You know , usually when I do these podo meetups it's like we do a little four or five hours and that's probably the extent of it . But uh , yeah , we did support your parks weekend . Uh , I know paul talked a little bit about the camping side of it and all of his activations and I saw him pop up on ham alert like there was no tomorrow .

My phone was going nuts with everybody , you know , on support your parks weekend . But we had about 14 people show up to the poda meetup , which is totally awesome . I got to meet AC1 RH Keith and he's cool dude , awesome little setup . He's got a freaking phenomenal antenna that I showed Paul that , uh , he was like totally like wide .

I was like this is a real cool antenna . Um , so I'm looking forward to kind of hanging out with him more and and uh , doing some stuff , and you know we should rope him into , you know , do a little bit of a port of parks because he was , I mean , for someone who is , you know , like myself I tend to spend most of my time on 10 and 20 .

You know , I barely rarely go to 15 or 17 or 12 he was literally up and down the band on every frequency , you know . He's like oh , I got 34 contacts , 40 contacts . I'm like , is that all in 20 ? He's like no , that's on 12 , that's on 10 , that's on 15 , 17 , and I mean this is like all in the middle of the day .

So he was just like all over the map and making a lot of great contact .

Um , I know , uh , you know , uh , you know some of the the our hidden gems , paul's park and stuff like that I've been introducing to . You know him a little bit and teasing , saying hey , you know you want to come to the really cool sites . You know , follow us . And so you know that was fun .

But all all that said is like so sunday rolls around , we go to maine and you know my wife loves to go to maine to go to the beach . So I figured you know this is ham radio off . No , no , no , ham radio whatsoever . And so I snuck in my qrp bag because , uh , on saturday I got a chance to play with a g90 .

Never played with one before , was pretty impressed with it . I mean nice little 20 watt rig . You know I would buy it if I didn't have the fx4cr , but hey , it's kind of like toe-to-toe a little bit in terms of same functionality , but I loved it . I mean we were talking 10 meters solely with it and we were making a lot of contacts .

But I got to show Ralph real quick how to do a poda activation because he'd never done it before and so he was pretty excited to see all that . But yeah , sunday I brought my QRP rig with me , went up to Mount Aggie up in Maine .

Um , I was all set to do a QRP activation and me and my stupidity , um , I threw in the bag oh , I forgot to throw in the bag a throw weight , so I had no way of throwing my line over a tree . I secondly grabbed the wrong transformer ballon . So I brought my dipole but only brought the n-fed wire .

So there's no way I could create another end to my dipole transformer of the , the ballon . So instead of having an n-form , n-fed reliance antenna ballon in the bag , I had just the , the transfer , basically the , the dipole version . So I finally my wife comes up the in jesus way . She's like hey , why don't you use your water bottle to throw over the limb ?

I'm like great , all I need to do is get my water bottle stuck up in the tree . But it worked . I got it over the tree and I got the wire all strung out . And then I reached in my bag and I went , oh , I got the , the dipole version of the transformer . Like no , this is not gonna work . So I'm thinking , okay , maybe I can hook up .

The end it was like a nine . It was nine , nine to one , one , nine point five to one . I'm like there's no way . So I have to do it all that work . I was just like forget it . So I put it all . I tucked my tail , put it all back in the bag . We all walked back to the truck .

But I've got hf in the truck and so the wife was like , hey , we need to water the dog , we need to kind of just recap . So I'm like , all right , I'm gonna activate the park right here from the vehicle . And so I made like eight contacts , because every park that I tried to make contact with love to talk .

I don't like like they would have a conversation like oh , what antenna are you using ? And like it's 15 minutes of like with every operator thing oh , I love your youtube channel , eric channel yeah , nothing like that at all . Nope , I swear scott's honor here that I did not get a . Hey , we know your youtube channel . I got the .

What antenna are you running ? You know , oh , I'm running this and I'm running this power and I'm doing it here and on and on . So I even tried to like figured , I go try to act , try to make contact , a park to park , with a Joda set up because they were doing a park as well .

The one thing that I couldn't get through was because there was a stupid lid on the channel going . This is N4 TAT . I'm the big uh tit master and like he's talking over , like all of these BSA , you know guys that are all activating from this park , and I'm like , what an ass .

Like there's no thought in my mind , like out of all people , to pick on the Boy Scouts . Really , like you know , during Supports Parks weekend on a Sunday , you're willing to like talk over them like a lid . And so , you know , I ended up making five , you know park to parks and the credit for it .

But you know it was a failed activation , but whatever , it was fun .

So I would have gotten three operators easily and put myself at 10 . But you know , what ended up happening was I had this guy talking over me . So like I'm not going to spend the next 25 minutes trying to fight him because I don't have more than 100 , watts Was he a real ham , or is it just some guy on a bow thing messing with that ?

To be honest , well , it wouldn't have been on a Baofeng , he would have been on HF for sure . But he was definitely strong because he was like this is N4 TAT , I'm the big tit man . I'm here to talk to the Boy Scouts . Then he would stop for a little while and then he'd spin back up again . I'm like you're a jerk Go do something with my wife's life .

That would have been cool to make contact with .

Like that's very rare , except like when field day rolls around or you know that type of other things . So it was good to see a lot of activity and I mean a lot of activity on the bands it's crazy .

I'm not going to give this away to another ham who was looking for an antenna to get going , because that's what I did was I gave him my bug out mini and I gave him the silicon wire , not the really good wire , and uh , you know so that what I had left in the bag was the good wire , but the , you know , the dipole version of the transformer .

Why did I not check before I left ?

You know , you're just going to turn the power down a little bit , but yeah , what a great antenna . Uh , you know just , you're just going to turn the turn the power down a little bit , but uh , yeah , what a , what a great antenna I wish I could .

Well , you know , if you want just if you're a listener and you want to get a good deal on antenna , you can head over to his website and either use code N1JUR or live free in ham to get 10% off and free shipping . So put that in the you know , when the checkout goes by and you can get yourself a good deal on that one .

And tell Matt we sent you and he'll treat you right for sure He'll do it even if you don't . Simple as that . He's a good guy . Yeah , all right . Well , let's kind of get into the meat and potatoes of tonight . I mean , we got a lot to kind of chit-chat about . This episode is obviously airing a little later , obviously in the you know time frame .

If you're familiar with sports parks weekend and when it landed . But you know we wanted to talk about it . Share some of our thoughts , you know . Share some of , uh , the excitement that we enjoyed over sports parks weekend . It was really cool to see that many contacts that were out there .

It made my heart warm that I was able to see you know and make contacts . Just alone I could activate a park on , you know park to parks . I mean it was like if you had no antenna on a dummy load , you probably could have activated the park on a dummy load . That's how good it was . So , all right . So , yeah , let's , let's talk a little about that .

We'll start there . Yeah , so , paul , you know kind of summarize , you know your highlights , what you thought was some of the good stuff that you know happened on sports park weekend .

You know things that , uh , you know , you really really uh , you know , give you some memories and then we can talk about some of the things you want to improve on well , all right .

I knew Jamboree on the air was going on , so I was already prepped and excited to talk to these kids , because I love when they put kids on the radio , because that's the future and if we can get them at a young age 12 to 16 or whatever you know interested in ham radio , they're the future of this hobby .

So , um , and and even more so , just the scouting mentality . You know that always be prepared and um , you know , you know , no matter how dumb you feel in the moment , you know you can , you could figure it out and you could learn and you can grow and you could , you could become a better person for it .

So I would say that that was probably the biggest highlight of the weekend . You know , short of that , a second best would have been you know , I , I tend to be my my therapist gives me shit for this . I'm an isolationist , go figure , right . Uh , you know , a troubled military veteran served , served in a combat zone .

Uh , I , I don't like to be around a lot of people . However , I do very much enjoy the ham radio community and so I would have been 100% content to just stay at my little campsite and just be by myself doing my thing . But Saturday night , john KB1ICL , tim KD1QDK and his wife and brand new ham he was at my September 14th test session .

Bill Bordeaux , I believe , is his last name . I can't remember his call sign . Is it URG ?

I was really , really appreciative of uh all of them coming out to my campsite and hanging out with me that's very cool that .

Uh , you know , outside of we could talk a little bit about your uh you know , sleeping situation , but you know well , anything kind of come out of that did you want to improve on for next year ?

Because I could hear them all night talking about driving their car and you know telling some guy that you know he could get the fuck out of here . And it's like , dude , it's fucking 1230 in the morning . I'm trying to get some sleep . I'm cold , I'm miserable . Like , just stop yelling in your goddamn boston accent , kid like and uh .

So the bathrooms were locked up and so they they . They just had one portage on and I mean I got there . I got there fairly early on Friday . I was , I was I don't know all set up by like 3 . Pm and I . I went to use the portage on and it was already so full of toilet paper and garbage . People were throwing dog poop bags in the in the port-a-john .

I'm telling no lies , if you would have sat down on the seat you probably would have had the pile of toilet paper touching you . It was just disgusting .

But otherwise it was a fantastic weekend .

You know any anything you kind of want to add in terms of you know your experience with that stuff and you know one of the things that you kind of gleaned from it that you want to do better for the next Sports Parks you get a chance to attend .

I mean , it was our last two games and I'm the coach and I couldn't bail on the kids and it wouldn't have been right and uh you know I'm glad I made the right choice and was there for the kids and I've only got .

I think this is my next year will be my last year of coaching and then my son goes into middle school and high school and I won't be coaching him anymore . So I'm going to take advantage of the little time left I have so in two years I'll be all over it .

I might even run the Support your Parks weekend , because what else am I going to do but as doing a Support your Parks weekend ?

But , um , as doing a support your parks weekend , like I said , the biggest thing is getting out and having fun and making contacts and , uh , you know , the stuff that we're doing with our club getting camping and all that kind of that just builds camaraderie , it strengthens the club and it strengthens the community and you have a good time , you know , and that's

what it's all about really . So , uh , paul , I'm glad that you had the guys come over and hang out with you and it was comfortable and you were good to go with that and , like I said , I like hanging out with you . Um , and it kind of makes me like I wish I was there .

You know , I should have just come up at night and hung out , but I didn't even think of that . But , uh , but you know it's awesome and , like I said it's , you know you don't even have to do it . On support , I mean , poda is a is a activity that you do anytime and , uh , you know it's , I love doing it .

I just , um , I wish I had more time to to get out there and uh , but I leave my radio in my car and anytime I get a chance or I gotta do a road trip and I I scout out the parks on the way and figure out when I'm gonna active , like am I gonna hit on the way back , or to my appointment , like how early am I gonna leave to get there ?

so uh , you're , you're spitting , yeah , and you know , like I said , the support your parks weekend . It's great that I mean this this weekend . I'm so mad because with the scouts , the the jamboree thing going on and that , and then there was a couple of um contests , wasn't it the vermont new york contest ? Or vermont new york kuso party ?

Yep , yeah , new york kuso party . So there's a lot going on . And worked on germany hellfest yeah , and then there's like the whole um 10 meters has been booming . That's my favorite band for poda . I love 10 meters , uh it's . I wish it was open all the time , because I always start on 10 meters and see what I get .

So but I'm just glad everyone had a good time and I'm glad it was successful and I just hope it keeps growing and more and more people are doing it and I I hope that we keep to do more of this camping stuff , because I think that's kind of cool and makes it , uh , even even more fun totally With you , man , on that one .

You know everybody who set up there and you know braved the uh the cold who did prepare with , uh , you know , buddy heaters and stuff well , you know , if I was gonna camp , it would have been snowing and 20 below . That's just the way that's . That was my fear too .

So it's unfortunate , but obviously you guys are going to hear this way after October 21st . But October 21st it's going to be beautiful out up here in New Hampshire and take advantage of it . Get out and do a park . I'm bringing my radio tomorrow . I got my battery charged and , if I can find an hour I'm going .

So you know this guy , you know n1j you are , you know he doesn't care , he's like ah , we're closing it down now and it's like 10 guys I can hear come on .

So if you get a chance you can work , paul , but go ahead , talk to us . What's going on ?

And so I said , well , before I do Mount Washington , I want to work my way up to it and go through the 48 , the first one being Mount Tecumseh . And so I had scheduled it and scheduled it , and scheduled it , and scheduled it , and the weather just kept not cooperating .

And so last month , my wife's best friend said hey , listen , I've always wanted to hike a mountain and so if you've got a good one , I'll go with you . And I said , okay , as long as you don't mind that I play radio at the peak . And she said , yeah , absolutely no problem whatsoever . Like , take your time , do what you got to do .

Uh , so tomorrow I'm getting up at 6 am , I'm gonna pick her up at 7 , 7 , 30 and we're gonna drive to , uh , waterville valley , which is the base of the trailhead for mount tecumseh . Uh , it's , um , I believe it's nine miles round trip , or just just shy of nine miles round trip .

Uh , so yeah , so I'm gonna throw the 891 and can't take the chairlift up . Yeah , no , there's no chairlift , uh , but I'm gonna take , I'm gonna take the gigaparts explorer bag and uh , and and I'll put the 891 and the nfed half wave in there and and just go nice and simple , and once I get to the top , I don't know , we'll see what happens .

Yeah , I'll bring an ht2 , uh , I'll try and make some 5-2 contacts , but what ? What ?

You got to get up to the mountain to spot yourself first , which shouldn't be terribly that hard , especially if you , even if you're like on five , two , like I watch , um , uh , red summit rf and like I mean he , he'll do like a hike in the morning to like a summit peak in arizona and like not even spot himself and literally have like five contacts on five

to you know , with a bunch of other guys who are already doing summits . So I'm sure you'll , you'll probably run at least in one or two up there . So that'd be good . And now my bucket list is is starting to kick me in the ass . Thanks , man , like that was on my list .

The accomplishment is uh , is pacman adnick ? That's not 4 000 feet , is it ?

It's got a better view than Mount Washington up by kind of near Cannon Adams or Madison . It's across from . It's kind of across from Cannon Mountain to the notch to the right of Al's Natch . Huh , no , no , no , the notch going up 93 , where at the end is cannon mountain . What was the name of that ? No , I don't know , I can't think of it , but it was .

It's like this I think it's the second highest one , but it's it's . It's got a much better view than mount washington . You said it's off cannon . Yeah , it's like in that . Well , it's not . So Cannon Mountain's on the left , it's like to the right of Cannon . It's not like right there , but if you're like looking at it , but it's a nice .

It's a hard hike but it's . When you get to the top it's just beautiful . I mean , it's phenomenal .

So we went up to his school , we camped on uh , two hammocks , one on top of each other , and he freaking fell asleep eating like a granola bar . And I hear this like middle of the night . I hear this like , and I look like below me this big fucking raccoons on his fucking gut eating his granola . He was out like a light . I was like what the hell ?

So , uh , so we left that . He went to Castleton state . We left that and headed out to um , mount Washington and we decided to hike up and I freaking wore my sneakers and shorts and a t-shirt and a windbreaker and a little backpack and it was like August right , like you're , like , eh , I'm dumb young .

So we start hiking up there and I get to the uh , to the point where the trees are like this big right , a little bigger , but you're almost like losing the tree line . All of a sudden , this cloud comes over and I should have died .

Cloud comes through , it starts pouring , hailing , snowing , water is flowing over me like a raging river and I'm grabbing onto the stupid little pine tree like from your life , like I'm literally think I'm gonna die , that all of a sudden it clears up , cloud clears away and we stand up and we are literally a hundred feet from this mid cabin shelter like literally

a hundred feet , that's it . So we with through the storm and we get in there and I see this truck and I'm like , probably get a . They must've helicoptered it up here , not knowing you could drive up the stupid mountain . So we , we , we get some , we , we got some like something to drink .

We kind of dried off a little bit and we said , all right , we got a little bit more to go . So we , we head up again and then we get up there and I get over the peak and I see a parking lot with all these tourists and cars and I'm like you could have driven up this thing . Are you kidding me ? That was my first Mount Washington experience .

It was uh , it was quite the uh , it was cool . Though when you get up there , I like to say that you did it , but I don't know if I could do it now .

I've driven up there and I've seen guys , uh , rock climbing off that face right before cannon mountain where they go , where the old man in the mountain was and I had brought my binoculars one time because you can always see , like if they're wearing red or you can see the little dots up there , and there's guys that are free climb that with no ropes , like

that's insane . I've seen a guy up there like literally I looked and he's got no ropes and he's free climbing . He's halfway up like he's got to either go up or down to get back to safety .

I think I have most all the stuff and the right gear , but my daughter and I did backpacking a little while , like two years ago during COVID , when it was great to go out and do trails because nobody was around .

But yeah , I got to get my feet back underneath me because I know I'd probably do that , 4,000 footer , and my calves would be burning and my legs would be blistered and I probably would be suffering on the way down . They'd have to airlift me out , I'm sure .

We're just gonna go up mount washington and as you get up there , there's like points where , like you're literally , it's like logs , like a ladder , like it's built into the trail over rocks to climb up and once you get past the tree line , the weather can change on you in a moment .

Oh yeah , and you know what's crazy is like when I was in big bear in california right , there's a whole town you know towns up there . They're at like 10,000 feet . It's like double mount washington , but it doesn't look like it's a big mountain . But going up you can tell like we were , we left like palm trees and halfway up it was snowing .

Like it's crazy , like it's it's . I don't know if you've ever , if you've ever , been out to big bear in California . It's , it's at like 10,000 feet and uh , yeah , it's just it's . It's like double almost , it's just it's . It's like double almost , it's just under double mount washington . And you get up there you can't breathe .

It's like you can tell the air's thin and uh . And then I look at mount washington . I'm like , oh , it's the highest peak on the east coast and I'm like it's only 6 000 feet . Like what the fuck ? Kidding ?

world at 50 because I'm probably one of them . All right , so all right , well , so let's get into the big thing . We obviously haven't talked about this in the past couple episodes , but we want to just touch on it so we can kind of put some closure to it . So , if you haven't paid attention , you've been under a rock .

Paul finally did it , he finally landed , he finally made the leap . So let's talk about kind of your overall experience with it . We obviously know where you're going with it , future wise , and we'll talk more about how you can support paul in that sense . But , uh , yeah , share , share your first-hand experience with us .

You know jumping from the proverbial , you know working plane so , uh , yeah , just I mean absolutely amazing , amazing .

front of me sitting on the plane floor , and the door opened and she kind of looked out and you could see it in her face . She kind of like pulled back a little , and so the instructor just scoots her right over to the door and she's like , nope , nope , nope , nope , nope , and nope , he just pushes and goes and I'm like , all right , now it's my turn .

And so my instructor kind of like scoots me forward a little bit . So I'm , I'm , you know , I'm , I'm attached to a fucking man , right ? like all right , you're the and and I , I didn't , I didn't realize that I I wasn't supposed to grab the little bar above the door .

And so I grabbed the bar above the door just to kind of get myself situated , because he told me , he said , listen , he said the way this is going to go is we're going to scoot to the door and you're going to sit and hang your feet down under the plane . Keep your feet together , hang them down under the plane .

And then he said you know , chin up , arch your back and and just hold onto the straps . And so I'm , I'm holding on , I'm , I'm , I'm trying to look down and keep my chin up , right , and I'm like , ooh , that's a long way . And and I feel him , I feel him kind of push out a little and I feel him pull back and I'm like , all right , this is it .

And out the door we went and we , we , we did a little , a little somersault , a little thing there , and it was amazing . It was like , holy shit , there's the ground , nope , there's the sky . Nope , there's the ground , sky , nope , there's the ground . And he taps me on my shoulder and that was .

That was my cue to let go and to put my arms out and the greatest feeling in the world . So , like I love roller coasters and anything that will get your adrenaline pumping and I was expecting kind of a roller coaster drop feel . There's none of that .

Like you go out and and you don't feel like you're falling , like I mean , you watch the plane and you're like , well , no , I know I'm falling . I don't feel like I'm falling and so I'm like , oh my God , I'm flying , I'm flying , this is fucking amazing . And I'm my god , I'm flying , I'm flying , this is fucking amazing .

And I'm I'm yelling , I'm hooting and hollering and I'm like , yeah , so I got , I got all the pictures , I got the video now and like let's stop there for a second so , being on the ground , we're like looking for paul up in the sky , because he went up in an orange , like you know , hoodie .

And we're bouncing back and forth and all of a sudden I'm flying and like , oh , that's Paul . And then finally his orange sweatshirt finally comes into view .

You know , uh , you , just , you just grab the , uh , the chute handles so I think they're called toggles um , and you know , you pull down on the right and you turn right , you pull down on the left , you turn left and if you pull hard , like I mean , you turn tight and hard and fast , and what a rush , like I'm , I'm just I'm like , yeah , let's go , let's

go , uh . And then he's like , all right , all right , give it back to me , because we were , I think , I think , I think , I think , I think he gave me , I think he gave me the parachute controls at about 3,500 feet , yep , crowds coming back .

Yeah , by the time we were at like I don't know about 2000 feet , he was like all right , give it back , give it back , give it back . He's like no , he , uh , he did a great job though of like steering us , you know , with the wind and and getting us into the correct landing position .

And now I had watched some videos , and the videos were like well , that lasts like 500 feet or so . You feel like the ground is rushing up at you and it kind of sets panic in people . Dude , I didn't feel that at all .

Everything was smooth , it everything looked good , it felt good and , yeah , he , he brought us in , he goes all right , legs up , legs up , legs up . So I I grabbed my pants and I pulled my legs up as high as I could , and he just glided us right down perfectly . We're so smooth . Just slide to a stop on your ass and the parachute comes down in front .

I can't wait to go again .

And we go , we go back to the little hangar area , he just drops his shit , grabs another shoot and he's like all right , I'm ready for the next one , and off he goes . I was like I want to do that , Like I want to do that .

And let me apologize in advance , because stupid technology got in the way of ruining this great moment because , for whatever reason , the damn livestream cut out right as he's out of the damn live stream , cut out like right as he's out of the plane , and everyone's like I can't see it . I'm like , oh man , this is the worst time .

It could have cut out any other time and all you see is paul finally on the ground . It's like no , he actually did jump . Guys , we're here to say he did jump . We , we have three witnesses , we're good , no problem there .

We'll say I know , dude , if those that are listening to the podcast will make sure we have a link to Paul's video when he finally puts it together , you can go over to that and check it out if you don't already catch the . When he realizes it releases it on a premiere .

Because he should definitely , because I guarantee people will be talking about it under the sun all the time . It would be awesome . But , yeah , great pictures . These are like first hand , like gopro shots from the wrist , and it's like this paul is todd's alluding to this . This is the phenomenal shot . You just can't make these up .

that's right , it was a really , really comfortable harness to wear yeah , oh cool , they even did uh in the plane shots .

Right ?

Now explains why carlos constantly says he's got a face shield on , because if you're like with your mouth wide open , I can imagine how much like saliva and spit and snot and everything is like hitting the back am on a tandem jump , that would be like 100 why I'd be wearing a face shield too yeah , well , I mean , carlos will tell you the story , but he , he

said that he'll never , he'll never tandem without a face shield .

were talking back and forth , and uh , at one point I I believe that I I shouted the only thing that would make this better is a radio in my hand .

That would be a phenomenal time and a great , great experience for all of us , even those that are on the ground to watch and be part of . We'll mention more about that . We'll share some of those details once we iron those all out . Bottom line is you are hooked , you , you're .

You're not gonna ever uh you know say skydiving's not for me , you're , you're good right , oh no , 100 I'm .

It was good to catch up and talk about some awesome stuff over the weekend , both ham radio and ham radio Jason , you know . So it's all good stuff and we appreciate you tagging along with us , as always .

Um and so any kind of last bit of uh things you want to just throw out there to kind of wrap the show up before we put some clothes , uh , to this stuff .

Um , it was , it was so worth it and and I just I I thank everybody that that was a part of it and supported me through it , and I look forward to many , many more jumps and and hopefully you know , everybody that's , uh , supported us so far will continue to do so and they'll watch the videos definitely , definitely anything you got to throw in there , todd

no , I'm just really pissed .

You know , got your bucket list I mean that's a big one and now you're going to continue on and you know when you're jumping . I hope to be there because I would hang out like I'm like it was fun just watching all the other people jump . I'm like this could be a good , good Saturday afternoon activity .

Bring a lounge chair and a couple beers and just watch you guys jump .

I'm I'm so glad it finally happened and I'm very honored to be part of it and see it from , uh , beginning end , although it was way too quick , like you said , but looking forward to seeing a lot more in the future , especially with us hanging out and more so just you going through the journey of doing something you love on top of ham radio as well .

All right , Well , so with that , let's kind of put some ending to this . So if you've been a part of the ham radio you know , live free and ham podcast community we appreciate you hanging out with us . We enjoy everybody who subscribed to our YouTube channel and is a part of our podcast as a sub . And if you haven't , you know we're going to say why not ?

Like , I mean , you're missing out on some awesome stuff , dude , you know we're going to be doing some really cool things in the coming year .

So you know , if you want to be part of that and you want to come hang out with us , we're going to be doing some meetups and fun activities so you get a chance to hang out with us and , as always , you know , hey , in order to do stuff like that , obviously you know we need the support , but you can always connect with us before you do that , Just so

you know . You know well , you know you're on the end and you're in with us . So you know you can go ahead to our shop , um , and visit us at the free hamcom forward slash shop by the t-shirt that says Paul will jump someday and then , if you do , we'll throw in the , you know the , the phase of the shirt Paul did jump and you'll get that for free .

So you know , if you buy that shirt , we'll keep it in the shop for the next , you know , month or so , and if you buy that shirt , then we'll , you know , give you a discount so you can buy the he jumped to as well and , uh , that'll be in the shop for a limited time . Um , we also alluded to in the past episodes that we're working on a ?

Um , limited run of the whiskey glass for Lift Free and Ham . So keep an eye out for that . That'll be coming soon . So we're excited about getting that launched . And , as always , you know , you can always send us a review . We want you to send us a review . Todd has said it at the beginning of the show .

We say it every show Send us your good , bad and ugly reviews , Use the SMS link or send us an email at liftfreeandham at gmailcom .

Let us know that you listen and how much you like listening and you can always support our show because we're going to actually have to support Paul's habit with jumping now as an expense , but we love that habit as an expense , so it'll be fun and you can do that via our Patreon and buy us a beer .

Links and those are all located in our show notes and on our website and , as always , you can reach any one of us by heading over to live free and hamcom . And thanks again for listening . We really truly appreciate it . We thank all of our listeners and we love doing the show because you guys like listening to us .

So thank you again and we appreciate it and with that , uh , from all of us at live .